The Franjiyah Era

By the summer of 1970, attention turned to the upcoming presidential
election of August 17. Sulayman Franjiyah (also cited as Franjieh), who
had the backing of the National Bloc Party and the center bloc in the
Chamber of Deputies, was elected president by one vote over Ilyas
Sarkis, head of the Central Bank, who had the support of the Shihabists
(those favoring a strong executive with ties to the military). Franjiyah
was more conservative than his predecessor, Hilu. A Maronite leader from
northern Lebanon, he had a regional power base resulting from clan
allegiance and a private militia. Although Franjiyah had a parochial
outlook reflecting a lack of national and international experience, he
was the choice of such persons as Kamal Jumblatt, who wanted a weaker
president than Sarkis would have been. Franjiyah assumed office on
September 23, 1970, and in the first few months of his term the general
political atmosphere improved.

The expulsion of large numbers of Palestinian guerrillas from Jordan
in late 1970 and 1971, as a result of severe clashes between the
Jordanian army and the PLO, had serious repercussions for Lebanon,
however. Many of the guerrillas entered Lebanon, seeing it as the most
suitable base for launching raids against Israel. The guerrillas tended
to ally themselves with existing leftist Lebanese organizations or to
form various new leftist groups that received support from the Lebanese
Muslim community and caused further splintering in the Lebanese body
politic. Clashes between the Palestinians and Lebanese right-wing
groups, as well as demonstrations on behalf of the guerrillas, occurred
during the latter half of 1971. PLO head Arafat held discussions with
leading Lebanese government figures, who sought to establish acceptable
limits of guerrilla activity in Lebanon under the 1969 Cairo Agreement.

The Chamber of Deputies elections in April 1972 also were accompanied
by violence. The high rate of inflation and unemployment, as well as
guerrilla actions and retaliations, occasioned demonstrations, and the
government declared martial law in some areas. The government attempted
to quiet the unrest by taking legal action against the protesters, by
initiating new social and economic programs, and by negotiating with the
guerrilla groups. However, the pattern of guerrilla infiltration
followed by Israeli counterattacks continued throughout the Franjiyah
era. Israel retaliated for any incursion by guerrillas into Israeli
territory and for any action anywhere against Israeli nationals. An
Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, for example, was made in
retaliation for the massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in
September 1972. Of particular significance was an Israeli commando raid
on Beirut on April 10, 1973, in which three leaders of the Palestinian
Resistance Movement were assassinated. The army's inaction brought the
immediate resignation of Prime Minister Saib Salam, a Sunni Muslim
leader from Beirut.

In May armed clashes between the army and the guerrillas in Beirut
spread to other parts of the country, resulting in the arrival of
guerrilla reinforcements from Syria, the declaration of martial law, and
a new secret agreement limiting guerrilla activity.

The October 1973 War overshadowed disagreements about the role of the
guerrillas in Lebanon. Despite Lebanon's policy of noninvolvement, the
war deeply affected the country's subsequent history. As the PLO's
military influence in the south grew, so too did the disaffection of the
Shia community that lived there, which was exposed to varying degrees of
unsympathetic Lebanese control, indifferent or antipathetic PLO
attitudes, and hostile Israeli actions. The Franjiyah government proved
less and less able to deal with these rising tensions, and by the onset
of the Civil War in April 1975, political fragmentation was
accelerating.